Egg donation is the process in which eggs or oocytes are collected from an egg donor who is a relatively young woman who signed consent for donating her egg. The collected eggs from the egg donor are fertilized with the sperms of the male partner of the recipient woman. The created embryo is implanted into the recipient’s womb.
The selection of an egg donation center is important to get success in the process. Reputed egg donation centers usually have the following criteria that help recipients to go through the process:
- Large database of healthy, educated, young, and fertile egg donors
- Availability of egg donors from all races and origins like Indian, Caucasian, African, Oriental, etc. give receipts to select according to their preference.
- The egg donors have to pass a stringent medical, psychological and personal screening before they are included in the database.
- All egg donors recruited under the egg donation center must fulfill the guidelines specified by the regulatory authorities.
- Presence of egg bank facility
Women who need egg donation support because of premature ovarian failure, premature menopause, or want to start a family after menopause, repeated IVF cycle failure because of poor egg quality, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOD), complete or partial hysterectomy, risk of inheritable genetic disease in children, require to do their research to select the egg donation center.
In the egg donation process, donor selection is the most critical part of the egg donation process. The egg donation center must have the option to select known donors, anonymous fresh egg donors, and anonymous egg bank donors. Availability of all these options in an egg donation center helps recipients to have a broad choice. The egg donation center must have a cryopreservation option for eggs and embryos. This will help recipients to frozen the surplus egg or extra embryo created through the artificial fertilization process and be used in the future for further attempts if required.
The egg donation center must take responsibility for egg donor matching. Egg donor matching is performed based on age, eye color, height, and other specific physical characteristics related to the recipient's wish. Egg donation is a complicated medical process and requires experienced doctors, nurses, and counselors to proceed through the process step-by-step. Therefore, recipients need to check the previous record of successful completion of the egg donation process in the selected centers. Along with this, information related to the experiences of medical staff who are directly involved in this process is also important to know before starting the process.
Recipients must also be aware of what medical tests are performed during the screening of egg donors. The egg donation center must conduct a physical examination of both donor and male partner of the recipient to check the blood tests like HIV, Hepatitis B, and C, and VDRL.